


Too Late

by deanandsam



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Gen, Pre-Series, Teenchesters, sam and dean - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-01
Updated: 2017-03-01
Packaged: 2018-09-27 17:25:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,155
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10036133
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/deanandsam/pseuds/deanandsam
Summary: John worries about what the future will bring for his boys. He begins to study them  more closely due to a snippet of information gleaned from another hunter.





	

John sat at the foot of the bed, outwardly occupied with cleaning his gun, but the actions were purely mechanical for his attention was focused on the two teens sitting at the table. Recently he'd taken to studying his sons surreptitiously when they were engrossed in some chore or other.

 

Dean was curved protectively over Sam; he'd always taken care of his baby brother, raising him more lovingly than any mother could, certainly better than he'd have been able to do on his own, John admitted frankly to himself in a moment of rare insight, and because of the life they led, they had no close friends outside of each other.

The casual acquaintances they made at the unending merry-go–round of schools never lasted longer than the time it took John to research and carry out a hunt but, even so, he'd believed the closeness the two boys shared would've become less binding the older they grew; after all Dean was seventeen now, and Sam thirteen; the age difference alone should have driven them apart, but none of that had happened.

The two were closer than ever, even now hunched shoulder to shoulder at the table, as if sitting at opposite ends was too far apart.

 

Sam had brought home a series of straight A's from school and Dean was looking them over, prouder than any parent could be with his child. He saw Sam look up at his brother with joyful eyes, basking in Dean's praise. It wasn't lost on him that Sam had gone first to Dean and not him!

"I'm proud of you Sammy," he heard Dean say. "There's not many scrawny little brothers that get straight A's like you do."

"You helped me study for them, Dean," Sam replied loyally, wanting to share the credit with his big brother.

"Yeah, well you're the one who had to write the answers, not me. It's good that one of us does well at school," Dean answered shrugging his shoulders, uncaring.

 

John watched as Sam's face took on an indignant expression. "You could get A's too if you wanted Dean! We both know it. I don't get why you don't even try at school."

"I don't need A's to hunt, Sammy!" Dean smirked. "I need to know how to use a gun and gank fuglies, nothing else."

"You're wrong Dean. The more schooling you have, the better you can research a hunt," Sam replied earnestly working the eyes.

Dean ruffled his little brother's unruly hair.   
"That's why you're here squirt," Dean parried. "You're my walking encyclopaedia, that's why I'll keep you around."

Sam scrunched up his nose and swatted away his brother's hand, but John could see the pleasure in his eyes at the thought that Dean might always need him.

 

John knew they'd forgotten he was even there; they sometimes lost themselves in a little world of their own where he, although their father, was neither invited in nor particularly welcome.

 

Suddenly he could take no more; he had to get out of the room, a sensation of dread washing over him; a spiral of fear for the two boys coiled itself around his body.

"Goin' out to get supplies," he threw out as he almost scurried from the room.

He saw the boys turning towards him in surprise, John's actions were never impulsive and rushing out of a room without his standard warnings about salt-lines and being careful, was unprecedented.

 

Pulling the door closed behind him, he gulped down a mouthful of fresh air to calm himself down. He knew why he was so off-balance; recently he'd been investigating a report he'd picked up from another hunter.

John tended to stay away from hunters. Most of them were rough hardened men and John didn't want his kids near them, but this titbit of info had made him get in touch with the guy and get him to spill all he knew.

Seemingly another woman had died on the ceiling just as his Mary had, right on the six-month birthday of her baby daughter.

John had been okay with believing Mary's death was a cruel game of some random demon, but it happening twice, and both times with a six-month baby involved, made him re-think everything.

 

What if Mary's death hadn't been a casual occurrence but deliberate; what if the babies were the real motive behind the two deaths? That would mean Sam was connected to it in some way.

If and how, John had no idea, but the very idea that Sam could be personally involved in anything supernatural scared the shit out of him.

His mind returned to the image in the room.

God help him; truth was he'd been spying on his own son to see if there was anything strange about him, but all he'd found out was that the bond his two boys shared was so much more intense and unshakeable than he'd realised.

It was like a life-line between them and instinctively he understood that if it was severed, his sons would lose their way and it would bring suffering and pain to them.

 

Maybe it would be healthier to separate them now, but if he did that he might lose both.  
He was in no way sure that Dean wouldn't leave too if he settled Sam with another family, or perhaps with Bobby.

Bobby would look after Sam like a son of his own. He knew the hunter had become attached to the brothers over the years, although the same couldn't be said for John himself, he mused wryly!

No, the time wasn't ripe yet, he needed more evidence but perhaps in a few years...

 

Sam didn't like the hunting life, John knew that and maybe he could pack him off to College and away from anything supernatural.

He'd have to go about it carefully though.  
If Sam left, he'd have to make sure the kid stayed away and had as little interaction as possible with himself and Dean until John got more information on the connection between the burning mothers and the babies.

A plan began to form in his mind. He'd insist he was against the idea of college, and that would probably lead to an argument. Even at thirteen Sam was as stubborn as a mule and since he'd entered his teen years, had begun to butt heads with him. Yeah he'd brush up on that idea.

To save Sam, and Dean too, he'd have to separate the boys. They were becoming too co-dependent and he could see nothing good coming from it.

 

He sighed as he made his way to the Impala, unaware that two pairs of green eyes were watching from the window.

Little did John know it was already too late, his sons were bound together by steel ropes, ropes which might give a little and be stretched to their limit at times, but they'd never break!

 

The end


End file.
